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November 07, 2006

As you recall from our ELECTIONS 2004 coverage, there were only a handful of blogs such as BradBlog and BE THE MEDIA that covered the extensive vote fraud in the 2004 US Presidential election. Corporate media blacked out coverage, and at the time, patriots like grandmother Bev Harris and the late, great Andy Stephenson of Black Box Voting were considered "tin-foil hat" conspiracy theorists.

Fortunately, Lou Dobbs, Court TV's Catherine Crier, Robert F Kennedy Jr (here and here), and even the Daily Show have joined "lone wolf" Keith Olbermann in uncovering this corporate take-over of our media, elections and our democracy. Here is a post from Greg Dinger, longtime voting rights advocate:

Hacking Democracy is the story of the discovery of Diebold’s GEMS (central tabulation) voting machine software and what has happened since. Please watch this video, and send the link to your friends.

September 02, 2005

The US budget deficit/surplus from 1961 - 2004, in billions. Seems like just yesterday we had a $250 billion SURPLUS.

From this graph, looks like that the Democrats build up a surplus and then the Republicans spend it - and then some - especially those "small government" Bush boys! Our grandchildren will inherit this mess, all thanks to King George I and King George II. There really oughta be a law!

Today a handful of heroes will attempt to safeguard the voting process by standing up to those who oppose fair and transparent elections. In solidarity with our brothers and sisters fighting for democracy abroad, it is our patriotic duty to protect the integrity of the vote here in the United States.

CSPAN Historic Coverage 1PM EST:The Senators that stand up today will be heroes. For the others, there will be no 2006, or 2008 - the party's over. You're on candid camera. So save yourselves, Senators - oppose the electoral results from Florida, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio. We are watching!

VIDEO - Fahrenheit 911 Joint session of the 2001 House of Representatives and Senate certified the election results, officially annointing George Bush as President. Read Michael Moore's open letter to the US Senate "Just One Senator":

"C'mon Senators! Especially you Democrats. Here is your one shining moment of courage. Will you allow the gavel to come down on our black members of Congress once again? Or will you stand up for their right to object?

MSNBC - Keith Olbermann: More than a dozen representatives and half a dozen senators will formally challenge the Electoral College slate from Ohio. Senate signatory could be Barbara Boxer. Barbara Boxer: Wont confirm or deny that she will be signatory.

Where's Kerry? Senator Kerry is on a 13-day fact-finding trip through the Middle East. "Kerry arrived in Amman, Jordan, yesterday and has planned a hectic itinerary, with stops scheduled in Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Egypt, Israel, and the West Bank." He did send me (and 3 million others) an email saying that "I will not be taking part in a formal protest of the Ohio electors."

So is Kerry protesting by not taking part, or is he not taking part in the formal protest? Such lovely ambigous phrasing!

Kerry Video here: "I am going to fight for national standards for federal elections. Standards that have both transparency and accountability in our voting systems. Its unacceptable, in the United States of America, that people still dont have full confidence in the integrity of the voting process."

Final Report on Ohio election problems "Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio?" by the House Judiciary Democrats. The report is the basis for Representative John Conyers (D-Mich) to contest the Ohio electoral results on Thursday.

"We have found numerous, serious election irregularities in the Ohio presidential election, which resulted in a significant disenfranchisement of voters. Cumulatively, these irregularities, which affected hundreds of thousand of votes and voters in Ohio, raise grave doubts regarding whether it can be said the Ohio electors selected on December 13, 2004, were chosen in a manner that conforms to Ohio law, let alone federal requirements and constitutional standards."

"Electors have already met in the various states to vote, but that vote will not be opened until Thursday, January 6th. If Conyers' protest is matched by the protest of at least one single senator, then the House and Senate retire to their respective chambers for a maximum of two hours to debate the legitimacy of the Ohio (and, possibly, other) electoral slates. After two hours, with a maximum of 5 minutes for any member to speak, a vote is taken. If both the House and the Senate vote by majority to sustain the challenge, then the presidential vote goes to the House of Representatives, where each state has a single vote.

Given that Republicans control both the House and Senate, and a majority of states were "red" in this past election, even if a senator joins Conyers it won't change the outcome of this election, unless between now and Thursday such massive, credible evidence of election-changing vote fraud is presented that even Republicans will agree that the election was stolen.

But - vitally - it will put the issues of vote fraud in America on the table in a way that even the mainstream media can no longer ignore. And it may lead to getting private, Republican-affiliated corporations out of handling our votes in secret, and to other electoral reforms such as IRV and public financing of elections."

January 03, 2005

President Bush (news - web sites)'s re-election campaign asked the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court on Monday to throw out a challenge of the election in this swing state, saying the case resembles "a poorly drafted script for a late night conspiracy-theory movie."

December 24, 2004

From the New York Times by James Dao, Ford Fessenden & Tom Zeller Jr.:

"From seven-hour lines that drove voters away to malfunctioning machines to poorly trained poll workers who directed people to the wrong polling places to uneven policies about the use of provisional ballots, Ohio has become this year's example for every ailment in the United States' electoral process.

"Congressional passage of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 - which mandated the provisional ballot as a failsafe and provided states money to update voting technology - was considered a landmark overhaul that would help prevent another Florida. "

"But an array of voting rights groups contend that Ohio has underscored shortcomings in the law, including one of its centerpieces, the provisional ballot. Now those groups are pushing for a re-examination not only of the law, but also of other voting issues, including the role of partisan secretaries of state in overseeing elections, electronic voting and the elimination of the Electoral College."

"Another area of contention is the large number of ballots - 96,000 by recent counts - that registered no vote for president. Known as "residual" or "lost" votes, they involve cases where no candidate for president appeared to have been selected or where multiple candidates were chosen, rendering the ballot invalid for that race."

December 23, 2004

"2004 Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry will file today, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, papers in support of the Green Party/Libertarian Party recount effort. Specifically, Kerry will be filing a request for expedited discovery regarding Triad Systems voting machines, as well as a motion for a preservation order to protect any and all discovery and preserve any evidence on this matter."

...try to rectify the fact that a new Washington Post poll has 70% of Americans believing the cost in flesh and treasure of the Iraq war has been "unacceptable," and yet somehow enough of those people thought the whole thing acceptable enough to vote for its continuation less than two months ago. "

December 15, 2004

"The ranking Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, plans to ask the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a county prosecutor in Ohio today to explore "inappropriate and likely illegal election tampering" in at least one and perhaps several Ohio counties.

The request for an investigation, made in a letter that was also provided to The New York Times, includes accounts from at least two county employees, but is based largely on a sworn affidavit provided by the Hocking County deputy director of elections, Sherole Eaton.

Among other things, Ms. Eaton says in her affidavit that a representative of Triad Governmental Systems, the Ohio firm that created and maintains the vote-counting software in dozens of Ohio counties, made several adjustments to the Hocking County tabulator last Friday, in advance of the state's recount, which is taking place this week."

"The company that requires immediate and penetrating scrutiny is Triad Systems.

Triad is owned by a man named Tod Rapp, who has also donated money to both the Republican Party and the election campaign of George W. Bush. Triad manufactures punch-card voting systems, and also wrote the computer program that tallied the punch-card votes cast in 41 Ohio counties last November. This Triad company graphic displays the counties where their machines are used:

Given the ubiquity of the Triad voting systems in Ohio, the allegations that have been leveled against this company strike to the heart of the assumed result of the 2004 election.

Green Party candidate David Cobb first mentioned problems with Triad on Dec 10.

And now there is the matter of a sworn affidavit here from Sherole Eaton, Hocking County deputy director of elections:

'He advised Lisa and I on how to post a "cheat sheet" on the wall so that only the board members and staff would know about it and and what the codes meant so the count would come out perfect and we wouldn't have to do a full hand recount of the county.'

Rep Conyers, upon hearing these allegations, sent a letter to both the FBI Special Agent in Charge in Ohio and the Hocking County Prosecutor.